


Dishes

by billhighthescienceguy



Category: Supernatural
Genre: :D, A little angst, Bunker Life, But mostly fluff, Domestic, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Tumblr Prompt, human!Cas, post season 9 premier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-21
Updated: 2014-10-21
Packaged: 2018-02-22 00:00:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2487086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/billhighthescienceguy/pseuds/billhighthescienceguy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas notices how many fights he's been having with Dean recently and worries that Dean doesn't want their relationship to continue, so he takes matters into his own hands and does what he thinks Dean wants.</p><p>When Dean finds out, he shows Cas just how wrong he is.</p><p>(All fluff. No smut. Sorry.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dishes

**Author's Note:**

> This is a tumblr prompt requested to me by an anonymous person. If you'd like to send a prompt, you can at whatwouldjohnbarrowmando.tumblr.com and I will definitely write it.
> 
> Also this is very fluffy and has a happy ending, whereas my main fic is full of angst and sadness, so it's a nice break.

"Ugh, Cas, I'm so  _sick_  of you never cleaning up after yourself, this is ridiculous! You're a grown-ass man, you should know how to do your own fucking dishes." Dean was parading around the bunker, picking up the dishes Cas had been leaving around and throwing them a bit too aggressively into the dishwasher. "All you have to do is put them on the rack, close the door, and push the button, why is that so hard for you?"

Cas stood with his back against the fridge door, watching Dean's annoyance bubble over through yet another burst of pent-up aggression. "Dean," he said over the clatter of the dishes. "I'm sorry, but sometimes I just forget, okay? I'll do better, I promise."

Dean barked a mean laugh. "Cas, it's not just the dishes, are you kidding me? You never put your dirty clothes in the hamper, you've never taken out the garbage in the entire time you've lived here, and I'm pretty sure the only time you have  _ever_  cleaned the guinea pig's cage was the week after I gave it to you! I've been cleaning up your messes since the day we met, and I'm  _sick_  of you refusing to carry your weight!"

Cas' lower lip trembled. He hated being yelled at.

Ever since the Fall, when Cas had become human, he had kind of retired into himself. Dean had been relatively understanding at the time, but that was almost a six months ago. He was done letting Cas off the hook.

"Well, what about you, Dean?!" Cas retorted, raising his voice at Dean. "You spend ninety percent of your free time drinking beer and whining about Sam or Ezekiel or Metatron! Don't you think I find that annoying?!"

"I'm sure you do, Cas!" Dean shouted condescendingly. "I don't doubt it! But you knew that was going to happen when you agreed to be my boyfriend, so there's no excuse for that! It's what I do, Cas, it's my thing. Your thing-" he waved his arms around his head, gesturing wildly. "-cannot be living like a pig!"

Cas felt tears coming on. He  _hated_  his tears. It was one of the absolute worse things about being human. When he lost his grace, he suddenly felt so emotional in a way he couldn't have even imagined. At first it had been difficult to control his emotions, but he had gotten better in recent weeks. Except that one, singular, complicated emotion of sadness mixed with anxiety and feeling overwhelmed; the one that made him cry.

"Dean, I worry about you!" He screamed at his boyfriend, who hadn't seemed to notice how emotional Cas was getting. "I know what too much alcohol and too many cheeseburgers can do to a person, and I am  _not_  going to sit around and watch you kill yourself!"

"Well, I've never changed for anyone and I ain't gonna start for you," Dean said bitterly, pulling his jacket around his shoulders and heading towards the door.

"Where are you going?!" Cas demanded.

" _Out!_ " Dean shouted, slamming the door behind him.

Cas wiped his eyes on his jacket sleeve and stomped down the staircase to the room that had been his before he moved into Dean's room. He stormed into the mostly empty room and slammed the door behind him. He collapsed on the bare mattress and stared at the white ceiling, feeling a mixture of anger and sadness brewing in his stomach.

This wasn't the first fight they'd had. They had been fighting quite a lot recently. About the stupidest things- Cas moving Dean's shampoo and soap bottles around in the shower... Dean replacing Cas' towels when he felt they weren't clean anymore, despite Cas' assurances that they were fine... Whether they were going to have leftover chicken or lasagna for dinner, and who was going to actually  _cook_  the dinner... Everything.

This was when the anger in Cas' stomach turned into nausea. He suddenly felt very afraid at the prospect of Dean deciding he had had enough of him. The fact that most of what Dean said to him nowadays was in a raised voice and using a  _lot_ of profanity made Cas' heart physically hurt him. He'd never understood what humans meant by having a broken heart, but... He understands now.

He reached up to his face and wiped the moisture from his cheekbones and heaved a great sigh. He felt like curling up in a ball in the corner of the room and crying, but he wasn't going to risk letting Sam or Dean see him in this state. He knew they had always seen him as a kind of secure force in the universe- one that would never waiver or break down. For their sake and no one else's, when he felt like crying, he'd keep to himself.

Cas rolled off the bed and walked to the door. He turned around and gave the room a once-over, trying to remember how he'd had it arranged before he and Dean started sharing a room. Deciding he'd work it out later, he left the room and walked down the hallway to Dean's room to collect his things.

He had come to the conclusion that Dean wanted to break up with him. He'd begun seeing this coming weeks ago after the first major argument they'd had. It was about whose turn it was to do the laundry. Bitterly regretting the things he said that day, he gathered his clothing from Dean's dresser, pulled a spare set of sheets down from the closet, picked up his favorite pillow from the bed, and went back into his new-old room and began putting his things away.

Cas wasn't going to let Dean break up with him. He didn't want to give him the satisfaction. He was going to break up with Dean.

\---

Dean arrived back in the bunker two hours later, having drunk his way through the local bar's supply of whiskey. He began feeling guilty during his drive back, remembering what Cas had said about alcohol poisoning him. He'd never felt bad about his drinking, but since it was Cas telling him he needed to stop, he knew he needed to stop.

Making a mental note to cut down to only a few drinks a week, he walked in the bunker and into the library area.

"Cas?" He called into the seemingly empty bunker. There was no answer. He hadn't really expected one. After one of their fights, Cas would usually spend the night on the sofa. Dean crossed into the living room and was mildly surprised to not find his boyfriend lying there. He shrugged, figuring he had to be somewhere, and made his way down to their bedroom.

He pushed open the door and stopped in his tracks. Something about the room was different. The closet was half-empty, the bed was missing a pillow, and the bedside table on the right of the bed was devoid of Cas' usual pile of magazines and multiple half-drunk glasses of water. Confused, he left the room again and walked down the hallway to the room that had been Cas' when he initially moved into the bunker.

He heard soft noises radiating from the door. He furrowed his brow and knocked and the noises ceased immediately.

"Cas?" He asked the large slab of wood in front of him. "Can I come in?" There was some rustling of bedsheets, the scoot of a chair, footsteps, then Cas appeared in the doorway, red-eyed and looking incredibly warn out.

"Hey... What are you up to?" Dean asked suspiciously, taking a step into the room. Cas had made up a bed (poorly) and his belongings were littered around the floor and on the desk. "What's all this doing here?"

Cas ignored the question, and sat down on the bed, kicking his legs up and picking up a magazine. Dean frowned.

"You just gonna... Ignore me then?" He stepped over a pile of Cas' folded shirts and sat down on the other side of the bed. "You tryna tell me something here?"

Cas lifted the magazine so it covered his face, and it dawned on Dean that he had been crying. He felt a knot form in his stomach.

"I'm just doing what you want, Dean. I'm making it easier for you."

Dean's frown intensified. "What?"

"I've moved back in here. That is what you want, isn't it?"

"Uh..." Dean looked around the room blankly. "No? Why would I want that?"

Cas sighed dramatically and threw the magazine on the bed. "Because you want to break up. Admit it."

Dean was now more puzzled than he had ever been in his entire life. "Cas, why the hell would I want to break up?"

"You know why. But I'm not letting you do that, so this is me... Breaking up with you."

Dean felt a punch in his heart. His confusion seemed irrelevant to Cas. "Why?"

Cas didn't answer. He hid his face behind another magazine, not realizing that he was holding it upside down, and said, "please leave my room, Dean."

Dean felt a lump in his throat. "You know what? Fine! I will!" He stood up and stormed through the doorway, slammed it shut, and marched back down to his room and slammed that door shut as well. He threw himself onto his bed and buried his face in the pillow that remained. It smelled like Cas. Tears dripped from his eyes and absorbed into the pillow. He felt completely heart-broken, and he had no idea why.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. Obviously it had something to do with the fight they'd had.

Or, the... Fights they had been having.

The... Several fights.

So many fights.

 _Oh, shit,_ Dean thought.  _No wonder he thought I wanted to break up._ It seemed perfectly clear now. Dean had been a total asshole to Cas lately. He had been taking out all of his stress over whether or not he could trust Ezekiel riding around in his brother on Cas. Guilt bubbled in his stomach, and he realized that this was all his fault. 

He felt like he'd just stabbed himself in the heart.

After an hour of thought-collecting and planning what he wanted to say, Dean stood up from his bed and headed back towards Cas' room. He knocked on the soft wood. There was no answer.

"Cas? C-can we talk?"

Still no answer. He wrapped his hand around the doorknob, considered his options for a moment, then twisted the knob and pushed the door open.

"Cas?"

He looked at the bed in the far corner at the lump underneath. Cas was curled up, breathing shakily, his back to the door.

"Cas?" Dean asked again, keeping his voice as gentle as he could.

"What?" Cas snapped, his voice cracking.

Dean's heart jolted. He couldn't believe he'd done this.

"Cas, I..." He sat down on the side of the bed and touched Cas' shoulder gently. Cas nudged it away, and Dean's heart gave another shudder. He folded his hands in his lap instead, and stared at the tuft of black hair that was peaking over the blanket. "I'm... Cas, I'm so sorry."

Cas didn't respond. Dean felt guilt pouring through his body. He felt like he'd just killed a puppy.

"I know I've been... Horrible lately. And I... I know I've been taking all this-this stress out on you, and I-I shouldn't be." Tears welled in his eyes. Cas remained motionless.

"I'm... It's just this whole thing with... With Sam and Ezekiel. It's making my normal stress levels quadruple, and even though it's not even close to being your fault, I've been taking it all out on you. And, Cas, I am so sorry."

The Cas-lump moved a little, which indicated to Dean that Cas was rubbing his eyes. Cas sniffed his stuffed-up nose, which ultimately proved Dean's theory that he had been crying, and guilt, once again, punched Dean in the gut. He reached over and put his hand on Cas' shoulder again, and was pleased when Cas didn't try to shake him off. 

"I don't want to break up, Cas," Dean said, his voice breaking. "I'm never going to want to break up. I... Cas, I love you."

Cas sat up and dangled his legs off the other end of the bed so his back was still towards Dean. He rubbed his eyes, then stood up, walked around the bed without looking at Dean, then sat down next to him, his eyes fixed on his hands.

"You've never said that before," Cas said. Dean noticed the blotchy redness of Cas' cheeks and how bloodshot his eyes were. He smiled ever so slightly, then reached into Cas' lap and picked up his hands. They were cold and damp with Cas' tears.

"I should have said it months ago," Dean said so quietly it was almost a whisper. He had certainly been thinking it months ago. But boy, was he glad he said it now.

Cas looked at him and it hit Dean hard just how much he had hurt him.

"I never meant to hurt you. And I know that's a really... I know those just sound like empty words, but... I mean it, Cas. I am-" He dropped Cas' hands and held his cheeks instead. "-so sorry."

Cas closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and smiled.

"I know. And-" He opened his eyes, leaned in, and planted a soft kiss on the tip of Dean's nose. "-I love you, too."

Dean grinned widely and pulled Cas towards him and pushed their lips together. He kissed him slowly and felt one last tear drip from Cas' eye and onto his thumb. He pulled their lips apart and touched their foreheads together, using his sleeve to dry Cas' cheeks.

"There's just one thing."

Cas narrowed his eyes. "What?" 

Dean smiled.

"You need to learn how to use the dishwasher."

 


End file.
